Friday - Not Quite Spring

The temperature seems to be on a downhill trend and rain is expected over the next few days, but for now it is at least sunny.  Evidently a lot of people are off from work today as is my wife. She is probably glad we don’t participate in this tradition down here at the yard so she can get in a bit of flower shopping without me complaining about it 😉 Two progress reports on the cosmetic repairs. First the boot top now has been primed and Kevin was wet sanding when I stopped by this morning. I did the blind test on the repair and you can’t feel any difference on the surface where the blending occurs. They also started drilling for the stanchions. We will bed these properly and be careful not to over tighten the fasteners to avoid starting new stress cracks. One thing I noticed while doing a cursory inspection on a boat that was launched yesterday was paint deficiencies. Although the owner never mentioned them in his work list they are in dire need of repair. Since he wanted to use the boat with his kids this weekend we are going to suggest he come back in June or July when we are slack to get this fixed after the spring rush is over. That’s always the best time to get the best repairs as the boat gets more focus when there are not a hundred other requests to handle. The window above, in addition to peeling paint, has obviously got some leak problems as is indicated by the wet mildewed spot inside the corner. The flybridge trim, which was painted to avoid varnish problems, has not been kept up and the paint has lifted. The teak was soaking wet beneath which is going to travel down the length of trim and cause more lifting. Our cradle mock-up is now off to the metal fabricator to be duplicated. Training Time. S3 has gotten to be quite the sanding machine and it is now time for him to get his feet wet with some brush work. He is going to apply the build coats and Jennifer will apply the crucial top coats. Anything Can Happen Friday Glad we don’t have to do outboard service on this boat: This may be the wrong way to launch a boat depending on your perspective.